Mamazina's Co-founder/Publisher and Mamapalooza's Founder and President, Joy Rose, returns to Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla, NY May 22nd for a rockin' live music festival from 11 am to 5pm. Come rain or shine, you don't want to miss out on this inspirational day filled with boutique shopping, food, live music and more! Admission and parking is FREE! Let's ROCK!
May 11, 2010
March 20, 2010
March 15, 2010
iPad
“iPad…is the iPhone on steroids” Apple is releasing the first batch of WiFi only iPads around April of this year. And then a couple of weeks later, there will be another model released with the ability to work on the prepaid $30.00 per month (unlimited access) AT&T cell network.
This one pound seven ounce technology starts out around $ 499. For your money, you will get 16 gigabytes of storage and 1 GHz of power. A Gigahertz is the transmission frequency of radio signals in cycles per second. Another way to look at it, 1 GHz equals 1billion cycles per second.
With over a thousand sensors in the multi-touch 9.7-inch glass screen, it is also backlit for a crisp look. Just like the iPhone, you can hold the device any-which-way you want, and the screen flips around for your viewing pleasure.
Apple spouts the battery life lasts a month on standby. In spite of that, I think their most impressive claim is that during continuous use (surf the net, e-mail or watch a movie) the battery will last 10 hours. Now that is some staying power!
With iPad, you will have access to stores to obtain apps. An app (application) is a software program to use on your mobile device, similar to going out to buy tax software and installing it on your home computer. However, with the iPad you just go online to the App Store and quickly snag it, you don’t have to brush your teeth nor gas up the car. Pretty nifty huh?
Now, at the App Store you can purchase anything from personal planners, games, or joke programs. You can also buy music through the iTunes Store, or get a book at the Book Store. There is 140,000 different apps you will have access to, some are free while others you will have to pay for. Please note: You cannot multi task on iPad because only one app can be open at a time.
Mind you, the iPad is not a cell phone and as a matter of fact, it does not have a USB port nor does it support the Flash program. In fact, it does not even have a slot to place your camera’s SD card, a CD or DVD slot.
Nonetheless, Apple has adapters for that! You may purchase iPad connector kits for your USB and SD card or you can e-mail photos to your iPad but it will result in smaller files that will distress the picture quality. The iPad has headphone jack to use while watching movies or listening to music. Although the iPad keyboard is about the same size as a laptop keyboard, Apple will be releasing a 30-pin connection docking station that will allow you to use a traditional full size keyboard or watch movies comfortably.
You are now armed with all the data I could pick from the brain of my inside-source (shhhh…that needs to be our little secret). Now you can make an intelligent purchase, or not.
Pamela Vanden Bos
Visit my website http://pvbos.com
View my fashion tips: http://avenue22.tumblr.com/
August 26, 2009
Reach for the Heavens by Maureen Locher
I sat in the theatre knowing I was sitting amidst a story I had to write; it was too special to keep it to myself.
Rewind 40 years: Do you see us – my sister and me screaming “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” at the top of our lungs as if nothing else in the entire world mattered? Singing “A Spoonful of Sugar” in such a strange way as to roll every single “r” in the song – “A spoonful of sugarrrrrrr.” Silly. Fun. I’m surprised I didn’t carve new grooves into my Mary Poppins album I played it so often.
Fast forward to Mother’s Day 2009: To my delight I opened my card to find two tickets staring back at me – two tickets to Mary Poppins the musical. And my oldest son, the giver, was accompanying me. We waited three long months until the date finally rolled around.
I was so excited. We dressed up, plugged in Mabel a.k.a. GPS and away we went. We were in the company of many groups of mothers and…daughters walking toward the theatre. Many, many girls all dressed up in their Sunday best in sweet little sundresses swinging sweet little purses. Mother/daughter outings. Never had one of those. I commented on the preponderance of females. Monotone voice replies, “I know, Mom.”
What a trooper!
We enter the theatre and I step back in time. I love theatres; of course, my son knows this. We find our seats and wait for the curtain to rise. The instant it does we hear the little voice directly behind my son, “I can’t see anything!”
Oh well. Get up on your knees Sweetie! We’re not moving.
How the songs took me back! I was the little girl again. But as the production continued, songs that I had to have heard as a child, but didn’t remember at all, rang with new meaning: “Being Mrs. Banks should be an easy role. And yet it’s one which I don’t seem too good at on the whole. I have a comfy home. I have a comfy life. I have a name which tells the world I’m someone else’s wife.”
Ladies??? I’d wager one or two of you can relate. Am I right?
So now I’m sitting there experiencing a gamut of emotions. Next, the first haunting strains of “Feed the Birds” plays, and the woman next to me sighs. A minute later the woman in my chair cries. What is it about that song? From child through woman it’s been my favorite. The music, the words, the whole package has always touched me to my core.
“Feed the birds. Tuppence a bag. Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag…All around the cathedral the saints and apostles look down as she sells her wares. Although you can’t see them, you know they are smiling each time someone shows that he cares. Though her words are simple and few, listen, listen she’s calling to you.”
Oh, she’s calling to me alright. She’s been calling for over 40 years. You think just maybe the birds aren’t birds at all, but are the very people with whom we spend our lives – our children, spouses, parents and friends? Feed them. Help them. Love them.
So there I am surreptitiously crying all over the place.
And then Mary Poppins opens her umbrella and flies up, up, up. So cool! I know there are wires, but still, it’s soooo cool. The little girls are oohing and ahing. Just seeing the set of the Banks’ house, and the way the stagehands manipulate it is worth the price of admission, but there’s so much more.
When I see Bert walk straight up the wall, across the ceiling and down the other side, again, wires, but this guy must be in such great shape to be able to do that. I have to go the gym more. However, even that, as spectacular as it was, cannot compare to the last scene.
Mary Poppins grabs hold of that magical umbrella (or is it Mary who’s magical?), and soars up once again. Only this time she floats up, up, out into the audience, above the audience, and UP TO THE BALCONY! Can you tell I’m just a little impressed! Can you imagine being a little girl and watching Mary Poppins fly above your head and disappear?
Well, I just had to have that souvenir umbrella, that’s all there was to that. And the purse and the CD and the pin.
In one heartfelt gift my son gave me my childhood, my present and my future. Mary and company sang, “Broaden your horizon, open different doors, you may find a you there that you never knew was yours…Anything can happen if you let it. If you reach for the stars all you get are the stars. But we’ve found a whole new spin – if you reach for the heavens, you get the stars thrown in.”
What a heavenly day! Thank you, my dear one. :)
And thanks to Disney and Cameron Mackintosh who presented Mary Poppins - a musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film.
Maureen writes a weekly column at www.CatholicMom.com. She is copy editor and columnist of Just Another Manic Momday at MWLM, and is a member of Faith and Family CONNECT, and the Catholic Writers’ Guild. Visit her at her own Web site: www.MaureenLocher.com ~ To Give God.
July 24, 2009
CAN YOU FEEL IT?
Take five minutes out of your life, and put a REAL smile on your face.
Visit my website http://pvbos.com
April 14, 2009
DO RE MI....
What Would You DO?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UE3CNu_rtY&feature=player_embedded
(cut and paste)
Pam Vanden Bos
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